So maybe I overestimated my ability to recover overnight. There’s that saying that it always hurts worse on the second day? That saying is true. Particularly when the pain mmediaedications wear off. They could’ve given me more, but I don’t want any. We don’t really know what the long-term consequences might be for these bodies. We aren’t human, and in some ways we don’t even seem to be from Earth. Pretending that we are seems particularly dangerous when it comes to medicine.

I would be home already if Sky had let me. I can walk again, I walked this morning when I had to use the bathroom (any toilet will flush once after the end of the world, and only once). I’m swollen all over, like some kind of pony version of a grape. I’m risking aspirin against the pain, and it helps a little with the swelling.

Made that stuff once during my one semester of community college. Biochemistry. Seemed like fun. Too bad tuition was so expensive.

Joseph wanted Sky to take him back home — he can’t drive yet, obviously — Sky wouldn’t do it. Seemed pretty silly to me, but whatever. She says the swelling should go down tomorrow, and by then it should be safe enough to go home.

Sky has been searching the hospital for supplies to take home with us, and Joe went with her. Lots of stuff didn’t make it. How was I supposed to know that so many medications needed to be refrigerated? Of course, there’s plenty of stuff that should still work fine. Still, it’s a good thing none of us are diabetics. There goes the insulin.

I drew in my free time, when I felt well enough. Nothing on the hospital TV obviously, but I’ve got some shows on the laptop here. Generator at the end of the hall keeps some lights we brought in and my laptop and stuff running, which is cool I guess. Guess I can catch up on the TV shows that will never finish. There’s not even anybody to complain to! How messed up is that. I guess I can just make up the endings when I get there.

I hope Sky is alright alone with Joseph. It’s not that I think he’d do anything, but she’s pretty fragile in more ways than one. I don’t think he knows how to talk to other humans very well. Or… you get the idea.

—A

Addendum: I woke in the middle of the night. I felt much better, enough to take my laptop (gently) in my mouth and go off down the hall into another room. I haven’t been up this late since the Event, and not just because the day is most productive for me and my weaker night senses. I think strange dreams are becoming more the rule than the exception, because I woke up in the middle of one.

This time I saw cars, boats, buses, planes. A train appeared without tracks, tumbling through the jungle, snapping trees and dumping ponies from the windows as it tumbled. An intercontinental military jet soared over a storm with a dozen confused, half-uniformed pegasai. A sailboat appeared suddenly in someone's backyard, surprising a little gathering of ponies there before toppling sideways and making a nice big hole in the roof. I felt like an invisible pair of eyes aboard each one, watching as ponies all struggled to drive things not meant for hooves.

I wonder what it says about me that I'm not even human in my dreams anymore.

The moon was very full, I’m not sure I’ve seen it so big in years. A harvest moon, I think they call it. Dunno; Astronomy was never really my subject. It’s amazing how much more of the sky you can see without all the light pollution. I wonder how many cities in the world still have lights to block out the stars.

I saw the milky way once, during a power outage when I was younger. Rolling blackouts. Though whoever’s reading this might not remember those… or remember power at all. Hard to predict I guess.

I can see the Milky Way. Even with my weaker eyes, it’s almost cloudy up there with how bright it is. I guess this isn’t the only thing that’s shifting back to normal. Insects probably aren’t confusing the position of the moon, or those night-birds and bats and stuff. Hardly seems worth the trade for all we’ve lost.

I feel like the moon is watching me. Every time I look away, I feel like something’s moving from the corner of my eye. But when I turn, it’s exactly where I expect it to be. It’s the same moon, so far as I can tell. I’m sure the Apollo laser reflectors would still be there if I knew where to look.

Whatever, I should probably get back to bed. Tomorrow I should really put together that radio. The parts have been sitting in the garage for too long. Maybe check on the “ranch” too, to see what’s Sky’s been up to.

June 15, 2015

Dear Journal,

Finally got out of the stupid hospital. I don’t look swollen up like a plum either, though you might make the argument for some kind of grape. It’s hard to see bruises through all the fur, but I can definitely feel it. Also, my skin is really pale under all that fur. Good thing I’ve got it, or I’d probably burn walking everywhere. Burn all over the place, since I walk around practically naked everywhere. One day I’ll have the spare time to make real clothes. Put that on the list of a million other things I have to do. I feel like I’ve started going insane again, just in a different way. Can a person work themselves to death?

I took it slower than my usual today. Put together the pieces for a midrange shortwave radio transmitter. Antenna went all the way to the roof. Put together it was like one of those old TV aerials, but bigger. I would’ve climbed up there without thinking not long ago, but that was back when I had a monkey’s coordination. Say what you want about humans, but we were good climbers. Ponies? Not so much. Maybe Sky could’ve done it. If she slipped, she always could try to glide her way down.

Of course she’s afraid of heights, she’s already told me so. I put the thing together with Joseph's help, then he raised it up with his magic and tied it down with stout wire. Fairly sure it could survive a good wind up there now, and he didn’t even have to shade any of the solar panels to do it. That unicorn’s got talent.

Of course he didn’t even know what a shortwave radio was. I had to explain to him how such a small transmitter was going to give us such fantastic range, its waves reflected by the ionosphere to a point somewhere far away on Earth’s surface (even the other side). I’ve only ever been a listener, so I couldn’t say how to do a precision aim like that (and what would be the point?). He didn’t appreciate just how much we could benefit, wanting instead to finish his mesh network project.

Apparently he’s got some simple nodes he thinks he can connect to some satellite network or something.Not sure what he thinks we have to gain, working with such advanced technology. How long are they likely to last up there, anyway? Already the GPS directions I get are whole streets off. Even if there are other satellites up there that keep working for a few years, or a few decades, it’s not sustainable. Without a population of millions, we’re not seeing rocketry again in our lifetimes. At least Sky’s help is focused on the practical. Feeding cows or whatever.

Set up the rest of the radio without glowicorn’s help, just a desk for now. Maybe one day we’ll have a whole broadcast booth up there. Or maybe that’ll have to wait for our new places. Whatever. Recorded a simple message to broadcast on maximum power on the highest bandwidth commonly accessible to receivers. My message was as follows: “If you are hearing this, you are not alone. There are other survivors. We have resources and a growing community. We are presently located in Los Angeles, California at the following street address... We will listen on the following frequency for any replies…message will repeat.”

Short and sweet, not to mention it would make it easy to hear anyone who found a way to return the message. Assuming anyone ever does. If Joseph is any guide, the technology is apparently no longer well known.

So I wanted to test the range (as best I could), and I wanted to see how Sky’s personal farm is doing. I put the two missions together, and tossed a radio into my saddle-bags and set off to visit the park. I didn’t offer Joseph to take him with me. I swear that stallion has got an eye on Sky lately. Can’t say I’m entirely comfortable with that. What were they up to yesterday while they were “looking for supplies?”

Maybe I should ditch the clothes, if that’s what it takes to get attention. Or get attention. Or… No no, focus! I’m not some dumb animal. I’m not going to get involved, I’m not going to get involved, I’m not…

So I went to the ranch. Brought some ice-cold lemonade (not the real kind, unfortunately) from the fridge, since I figure she’s probably pretty thirsty from being out in the hot sun.

I’ve got to say, Sky has done some impressive work. I guess I’m not the only one who’s learned to use their hooves better. Though, since she spends so many of her days here, I guess it would make sense she would get stuff done. I wonder how much she had to bring Joe to do some of the difficult bits.

She’d set up dozens of those pop-up canopies, all around the edge of the lake. A big-ole pump went right into the water, floating on a raft in the center (and probably held on by duct tape). Hose on that thing fed a crazy daisy-chain of garden hoses with those circulating-sprinklers on the end, all spread out (with gradually decreasing water pressure, by the look of it. The lawn was quite brown once you moved more than a few dozen meters from the edge of the lake, except where her sprinklers kept things watered. There, the grass seemed overgrown, and unnaturally healthy. Clearly, the cows weren’t grazing any of that down. Temporary barricades covered every entrance to the park, reinforced by chicken wire kept in place by piling heavy objects behind it. Only one entrance remained clear, the one protected by more barricades crossing the street and straight into the “barn”.

The water level on the lake looked notably lower than I remember. Sprinklers ran, and a single horsepower diesel generator croaked quietly away in the background. The cows lounged under the canopies by the drying lake, mooing contently and not seeming to notice or care that I was there.

Only Sky worked, though I didn’t see her at first. Only with a little searching did I spy her faintly pink form in the “barn”, doing something silly. Yes, she was sweeping. Yes, she had the broom in her mouth. No, it didn’t look comfortable.

She didn’t notice me until I got close to the front door of the old building. The empty dollar store hardly looked recognizable, not with all the shelves completely pulled out (how the heck did she do that?). Hay… yeah, hay, had been spread on the floor, though she was sweeping it out into an empty storm drain. The grate had been removed somehow, letting all the refuse drop down into the darkness beyond.

Told her how impressed I was with her work (particularly considering how little I thought she knew about machines). Guess the pegasus can figure things out when she really needs to. I didn’t bother asking how she had got so much done so fast, though I was curious.

We talked, shared some minute maid, and with a little prompting, she eagerly gave me the tour. Explained how she’d built everything, and the trips she’d made to get around. Said it had been the cows who helped her, at least with all the heavy lifting. A little of Joe, though she sounded frustrated whenever she talked about him.

I turned on the radio for her, demonstrated our little broadcast. She thought it was neat, hoped we’d get “some more nice ponies” to join us here. I did too, though I’d still prefer to call them “nice people.” Are people and person species-specific terms? They don’t seem to be, but I don’t… really know about words and stuff.

I’d meant to turn the radio to the “listening” frequency to see if anybody had replied yet. Didn’t get the chance. It was getting late already, and she asked for my help bringing the cows in. Not really sure why she needed it. Just sorta yelled, and they came back to the “barn”. Weren’t that many, and it’s a pretty big store, though I could see Sky had opened some of the high windows for ventilation. Guess I shouldn’t have second-guessed her farming skills.

I had walked, so I rode in the passenger’s seat of her pickup. Huan wasn’t in attendance; hadn’t been all day. Not really sure what happened to him… but I’m not terribly worried. He’s a smart dog, he’ll be fine.

We really need to bring him a doghouse. Maybe if he had a place that was clearly his own on the property, he’d be more willing to come inside the fence. I keep him fed well enough that I’m sure he wouldn’t attack the chickens, even if he somehow managed to get into the backyard.

I didn’t offer Joseph to take him with me. I swear that stallion has got an eye on Sky lately. Can’t say I’m entirely comfortable with that. What were they up to yesterday while they were “looking for supplies?”

Maybe I should ditch the clothes, if that’s what it takes to get attention. Or get attention. Or… No no, focus! I’m not some dumb animal. I’m not going to get involved, I’m not going to get involved, I’m not…

Haha, you are definitely trolling us now with A's gender and sexual orientation. How can you even interpret that?

I'm still waiting for the author of this Apocalyptic Log to give us a moniker we can refer to him as. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, this was another fun read. Also, I think it's obvious he has a bit of an infatuation with Cloudy, of course her being the only female as of yet and the first survivor he came in contact with is probably feeding into his infatuation as well.

6073750 Shh, you never know when Loki might be watching. Don't give the game away too early! Oh, and mind the draconequus on the way out - I don't know why he's hanging from the ceiling - after all, its more fun turning up in their bag!

6073778 I don't think Saddle would think thats very polite... And besides,if he gets too hurt, he won't be able to come to his party!!Remember, theres slapstick humor, then theres violence. Keep it G, there might be foals watching!!!

Love how A talks quite fondly of Joe after getting real help from him with a high priority project of his, then reverts to a term like 'glowicorn' when it comes to one of Joe's pet projects. And even drops the name entirely for 'stallion' when speculating about Joe's intentions toward Sky. Coming from A, that's almost degrading.No matter how all this turns out, It's good to see a real relationship forming between the characters - that's not only a pleasure to read but also gives the story a second component to drive it forwards. Nicely done with that slow development, feels entirely realistic.

So... Joe and Sky have buttmarks, know something from that vision they don't want to share with A and also seem to like each other. Can you work yourself to death? If you work like crazy to stop yourself speculating about stuff that gnaws on you: definitively.A should really, really ask Sky about this mystery; but then A still seems too proud to admit to feeling left out to someone else.

Oh and Sky? Stop watering the grass during the day. Most of it will simply evaporate without doing any good... come on engineering earth pony, give a lady a hint and a hoof. Wonder what would happen to the vegetation if A tended to the ranch just a little.

6070158 True... I just thought it looked weird, and the bumblebee thing often comes up in science classes. I know that we dissected an owl pellet, and they went into major detail about the birds themselves during that. Maybe most people have simply picked up on it over time? And really, a pegasus' wing looks really derpy, especially on the mlp pegasi. It looks inherently wrong, even to those who enjoy old mythology.

Or the internet managed to only bring together the select few people who actually know this fact.

I swear that stallion has got an eye on Sky lately. Can’t say I’m entirely comfortable with that. What were they up to yesterday while they were “looking for supplies?”

Maybe I should ditch the clothes, if that’s what it takes to get attention. Or get attention. Or… No no, focus! I’m not some dumb animal. I’m not going to get involved, I’m not going to get involved, I’m not…

I had to explain to him how such a small transmitter was going to give us such fantastic range

Strange. I can understand Joe missing some of the understanding, but it sounds like something he'd care about. I'm assuming he has a formal CS Engineering background, and it seems strange that he'd be working with mesh networks without having at least passing understanding of how electromagnetic radiation works. He does realize that the only difference between his 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands and A's shortwave 3-30mghz bands is the frequency and wavelength right?

I'm also guessing that A was a HAM in his past life- err body.

Already the GPS directions I get are whole streets off.

This is actually normal, since consumer-grade, non-military / avionics GPS aren't insanely accurate. Most systems rely on cell and wifi network triangulation to close the gap and bring the accuracy down to a few meters. When you account for the several weeks(?) of drift from the lack of syncing with the ground stations, I wouldn't be surprised if GPS was already a few hundred, if not many kilometers off (possibly even more). So in that sense, GPS location accuracy shouldn't be working AT ALL.

Just a horrible afterthought... what about those poor people in the ISS? They're going to die a lonely death, if there wasn't already a capsule / shuttle docked ready to pick them up... And how would they operate the controls as ponies lolololol SIDE STORY IDEAAAAAA

Maybe I should ditch the clothes, if that’s what it takes to get attention. Or get attention. Or… No no, focus! I’m not some dumb animal. I’m not going to get involved, I’m not going to get involved, I’m not…

Hmm, this could be evidence in favor of A always being a girl theory. Also, I wonder if A is in heat, and fighting off some of the more distracting thoughts. After all, ponies are intelligent, and as you mentioned, I think fan portrayals of their civilization breaking down to participate in orgies is a little bit unrealistic lol.

Hmn. Random theory time. Equestria and the Princesses are well aware of what is happening but didn't cause it or anything like that, and are actively trying to help. The circles (Twilight attempting to bootstrap some cultural knowledge of pony magic abilities?) being one example, and Luna watching from the moon being another.

So I wanted to test the range (as best I could), and I wanted to see how Sky’s personal farm is doing. I put the two missions together, and tossed a radio into my saddle-bags and set off to visit the park. I didn’t offer Joseph to take him with me. I swear that stallion has got an eye on Sky lately. Can’t say I’m entirely comfortable with that. What were they up to yesterday while they were “looking for supplies?”Maybe I should ditch the clothes, if that’s what it takes to get attention. Or get attention. Or… No no, focus! I’m not some dumb animal. I’m not going to get involved, I’m not going to get involved, I’m not…

First, thought: Didn't see that coming. Second thought: it still doesn't say who she wants attention from!

"Any toilet will flush once after the end of the world, and only once." Sage advice, that.

In any case, A is back on his hooves. A much more sophisticated beacon is in place... though it's anyone's guess whether anyone else in the world has the necessary technology to receive the signal, much less send a response. It's interesting how each member of this little community is operating at a different level of technological sophistication. Though, as has been noted, Joe's is going to become much less relevant when the satellite orbits decay.

Also, there seems to be some lunar scrutiny on this world now. Equestria is almost certainly aware of their plight. Now the question is what it will do about it.

I swear that stallion has got an eye on Sky lately. Can’t say I’m entirely comfortable with that. What were they up to yesterday while they were “looking for supplies?”Maybe I should ditch the clothes, if that’s what it takes to get attention. Or get attention. Or… No no, focus! I’m not some dumb animal. I’m not going to get involved, I’m not going to get involved, I’m not…

So A is a mare after all. or he likes colts.or she likes mares.or maybe he likees mares.

So that's where all the moving vehicles full of people went?Oh dear god.

6074735Well, I figure they'd ... transit over. That's gotta be an unpleasant thing to see looking out the window: You're now orbiting a different planet.

Though I suppose it wouldn't be that bad, considering. Yeah, there'd be a lot of discomfort and awkwardness, but the thing is made to operate independently for months, and assuming you can figure out how to fit a pony into a soyuz, you should be able to touch down on dry land.

Hmm, I've been inclined to believe A has been male from the get go. No real reason why, other than I tend to put myself in the character's perspective when I read, and since there were no obvious gender clues, (plenty of subtle ones both ways though), I guess I just formed his image around my own.I suppose it could be possible that both A and Sky were into mares, but I'm still leaning toward A being Male. Sky's interest in him seems obvious by how much she wanted him to stay in the hospital, and her negative comment about Joseph in a previous chapter, which was my first clue that she might be more interested in A.As for A, I suppose his jealousy of Joseph might be covering up his interest in him, but I'm still hoping it's Sky's interest that he is trying to attract.

Wow... you managed to distract me from the post apocalyptic part of the story which originally gained my interest, and instead have me focusing on a potential love triangle with the only three characters that exist so far... (am definitely excluding Huan here...). In any event you have the eye of Sauron Quix keenly focused on your story, keep up the awesome work !

NOTE: from now I will refer to the main protagonist as "Alex" because that name begins with the letter A and is gender neutral.

I put the two missions together, and tossed a radio into my saddle-bags and set off to visit the park. I didn’t offer Joseph to take him with me. I swear that stallion has got an eye on Sky lately. Can’t say I’m entirely comfortable with that. What were they up to yesterday while they were “looking for supplies?”

Maybe I should ditch the clothes, if that’s what it takes to get attention. Or get attention. Or… No no, focus! I’m not some dumb animal. I’m not going to get involved, I’m not going to get involved, I’m not…

So Alex has got the hots for Sky. Granted, this part is a little vague on who he wants to "get attention" from. But based on the way he talks about both Sky and Joe, he could, potentially, have feelings for Sky while he seems to outright despise Joe what with the insulting nicknames and what not. So he's most likely talking about Sky here. I really like to think that Alex is a guy. If not, it would mean that she was a lesbian. I'm anti gay (yes, even with fictional characters) so I really hope that's not the case.

By the way, I guess this is as good a time as any to address a couple arguments in favor of Alex being a mare. One such argument was that Alex is a few inches shorter then Joe which was considered evidence because mares are generally shorter then stallions in the show. However, height does not imply gender. It's entirely possible for two ponies who are the same age and the same gender to be drastically different heights. Just look at Snips and Snails.

Another argument I read is that Alex said a line which went something like this "Do all stallions smell this bad?" (it went something like that but I forget the exact line). Once again, this does not imply gender. If Alex is a stallion (and therefore smells as bad as Joe supposedly does), he wouldn't notice his own smell because it would be "his own smell". He would be smelling it all the time and, therefore, would be used to it.I also came across the idea that maybe Alex was a man before the event but ended up as a mare as a pony. That's just stupid. If I was in Alex's situation (and was keeping a journal), then, just like him, getting turned into a pony is the first thing I would mention. However, getting a completely different set of genitalia would definitely also be mentioned at some point. If that theory were true, we'd already have confirmation of it.

Amazingly subtle storytelling ... the last chapter showed us that not only was Equestria out there, but a certain scion of the Sun was looking out for her ponies. This chapter hints at the fact that the 'event' has probably left Equestria in utter chaos and confusion.

6073564To be fair, the sleeping giant already seems to have rolled over on this planet. only worry might be that the few who are still there weren't part of the plan. But it's still pretty terrifying. "Oopsie looks like we missed a few, push the disk format button a couple more times!"

6074215 Being a graduated CS student, focused on networking and with sysadmin as a hobby I can tell you I have no idea how any kind of wireless work aside from "it uses waves" and "runs on a certain frequency".(Thinking about this, it makes sense that lower frequencies have higher range, since I know 5GHz wifi has lower range than 2.4GHz wifi.)

From what's been shown of Joseph's knowledge (he was a software developer, but he did have enough expertise to backup some random sites), I wonder what's that "mesh network" he's working on. If it's software only, I really doubt that it will be useful and his priorities.

Huh, I guess I might have just been biased by the people I work with / know. Seemed like most people who have degrees in software engineering, also took a few EE class, if not outright double-majored in EE as well.

Seeing that Joseph was a "software architect", I assumed that he was pretty senior and had a wide breadth of experience. You don't get that senior as an IC, without significant experience in a broad arrange of subjects. Not to mention, his company was shipping around the country to work on certain projects, so that company must be large enough to support those sort of expenses AND have the need for an "architect" role.

I wonder what's that "mesh network" he's working on.

I'm assuming using these sort of technologies to extend his "kimbalnet".

This time I saw cars, boats, buses, planes. A train appeared without tracks, tumbling through the jungle, snapping trees and dumping ponies from the windows as it tumbled.

Hadn't given this any real attention on my first read through... now I suddenly have a picture of a 'bombed out' Equestria littered with impact craters, burning wreckage and dead or maimed ponies. *shudder*And those dreams and that night sky... something's getting, well, thinner. Or something.

6073814It does seem like not all the ponies are doing what they're good at. Really, a colony could do so much better with a scout/messenger pegasus, not to mention how far she could go for salvage without having to worry about driving there. Instead, she's doing the growing, and the earth pony is salvaging. But how are they supposed to know? It's not like they watched MLP or anything (hard to watch something that doesn't exist).

6073876Though in that case, most of the individual stars and starsystems will probably survive that encounter (baring getting thrown out into dark space or whatever).

6074215Yeah, not a chance the whole society would break down into orgies, even if they have stronger monthly cycles than humans do. I don't think they could survive as a civilization if they did. Freakin' out and crap.

6074387This seems like the sort of theory that will be confirmed or refuted by the end of the story. As to who A's interested in, well... I'm not sure yet if we'll figure that out by the end.

6074735Yeah! Lots of cool stuff growing in the group. Including that neat idea.

6075111I dunno. It seems like A defanately likes someone! Maybe mares, maybe stallions. Maybe "he" spent the night with a mare, or maybe "she", just spent the night with a friend, or... I guess there's more options than that. Okay I'm not being very helpful.

6075141I don't like the idea of trying to do any sort of ship-operating with hooves. Maybe as a unicorn, but I have to imagine the learning curve would be the pits.

6075531I'd say I probably did my job if the story is interesting enough that even a potentially side-story aspect of it is fun enough to speculate about this much and distract from the "main" plot. Well, not "job", but... something I do all the time for sure.

6075617Thanks! Storytelling with this project has been harder than any of my previous stories. With this weird style, it's almost impossible to show character development the usual way; with character actions. Instead, I've had to use changes in attitude, bias, and tone to reflect those changes. It's a much harder way to "show instead of tell." still, seems to be working! ^^

6076299I believe Joseph was a software architect. He was up there. Makin' the big bucks. Moreso than me. I'm also in CS, but I resisted talking about it much in this story because so much of my last one had tons and tons of computers overflowing from it.

6076616He very much is! And probably apps like the "Servalmesh" for android smartphones. Fun stuff right there.

Have to say if we are still speculating about A's gender that I think they are probably bisexual/prefers girls and a trans guy. That is to say a guy with a female body. It might explain why Sky is more nervous around Joe than A even though they both wear clothes and all the potentially conflicting stuff.I think A prefers Sky to Joe, at least so far.

Really should have noticed this first time through: in the real world, June 16 was actually a new moon, not a full moon. Either the LPOE lunar cycle is 12ish days out of sync with ours, or something strange is going on here....

General tip for anyone planning on bringing up moon phases: online calendars almost always show them, and you can easily find basic info just by searching "[month name] [year number]". More detailed info like libration state, sun/moon rise/set times for specific places, etc, is only a bit harder to come by. Most readers probably won't notice, but those who do generally appreciate the slight extra effort to make things line up right.